Joe was taking over as teacher this morning for the girls’ English classes, so I could have a couple of meetings in our shared office inside my closet. Sounds strange, but it’s the only workable standing “desk” in the house!
I usually go up and down these stairs as little as possible during the course of a day, really only to sleep, put the girls to bed, get changed… But today, I was up and down more often, and then I realized, I haven’t even shown you.
I don’t know how to get a great picture, or how to explain just how steep this staircase is in just words. It’s a horrible staircase. The girls are under strict orders to always hold on to the railing when going down, it’s easier to climb up, but down is just gross. Multiple times per day, another 7 weeks to go. We’ll practically be mountain goats by the time we leave here!
After the girls finished their school work, after our lunch of dumplings and noodle soup, there was some time for play while I finished up what I was working on. Joe had been helping them all morning, so took over the office in the afternoon. The girls had a whole grocery store set up with their stuffed animals and all the trinkets they’ve acquired since we arrived in Japan, and so they had to clean that all up before I could take them out for a walk to a new playground.
The girls and I left the house around 2pm, and walked down towards the playground with the great climbing wall from last time. There were too many, too old boys there for the girls to want to hang out, and also unbearably hot. So hot in fact, that we decided a 7Eleven smoothie was the only solution. We haven’t had these since Tokyo! Téa had her usual berry smoothie, Maylin tried a new banana milk smoothie, and I went with my usual green smoothie. Delicious and cold!
With smoothies in hand, we set off again. It was still unbearably hot, but this time we got all the way down to the far playground, the one with the interesting looking climbing structures that we spotted on our walk on day 1 in Osaka. And they were just as fun as they looked! Both girls were off running as soon as they dumped their stuff on my bench.
This little playground has a walking path all the way around, and several older people were doing laps. Soon other kids arrived to play, kicking balls and using other equipment around the park. Téa found it too hot at times, and came to join me on the bench, but there is nothing that can slow Maylin down. If I hadn’t told her to come home with me, she might still have been there at nightfall! She made it to the top of both towers, and then the older kids were on there, bouncing and making the whole structure shake. It was hard to leave this park, but we did it!
By now, we were all out of water, so we went to the nearest drinks vending machine. It was out of regular water! I ended up buying a sports drink to rehydrate us, to get something cold and wet down our throats, and of course neither of them enjoyed that. When we walked across the street, we found an ice cream vending machine, and decided that our next visit to this park would definitely involve ice cream!
We started walking away and BOOM! Right across the street there was ANOTHER playground with MORE FUN EQUIPMENT! So of course we had to stop there for the next 15 minutes. The problem with playgrounds is that the fight to get them to leave a fun place takes up almost as much time as they were playing there in the first place… At least this playground was in the shades, and my book was almost finished…
When we FINALLY left to walk home, something very Japanese happened, and I have no pictures to explain it. We often see park workers pruning and trimming and making the surroundings look great. My mom and I, 18 years ago, took pictures of an arborist high up in a tree, sitting there happily pruning the tree to look its best. So today, as we were walking along this park, there were two landscapers working. One was using an edge trimmer, and the other was on the sidewalk with a giant curtain to shield passersby from the debris from the trimmer! How amazing was that? The trimmer man was able to continue working without stopping every time someone walked by, and the shield man got his steps in, walking back and forth between pedestrians and his colleague!
We finally made it home to the air conditioning, and saw that Joe had gone grocery shopping. One of the new things he had bought was a variety pack of little filled cakes.
After a yummy pasta dinner with meat sauce, the girls played for a bit before it was finally time to cut into and sample some of these new flavours! We decided the chestnut and white bean paste cakes were first up, and of course we all have an equal share.
After these were devoured, we decided two were not enough, and we tried the mooncake as well. All delicious, but we all have our personal favourite. The last two have to wait until tomorrow!
Now we climb the stairs of nightmares, and do it all over again tomorrow. Except Thursdays are for bouldering, so there’s that to look forward to!
Wow! This stairs look extremely steep, and I bet they are made for small sized feet. I’m amazed at the vending machines! So interesting seeing all the exotic flavours, and treats.
YES the stairs are narrow and steep! Maylin has a giant purple bruise mid shin from banging her leg going up them, and we all clutch onto that railing when going down. I’ll keep sharing, if you keep reading!
Enjoying keeping up with your adventures. Lots to see and do to keep the girls interested. The vending machines are truly a marvel. So many things available.
I’m to comment again. I had given up but I see others have succeeded so here goes.
I belong t a FB page titled Death Stairs and I think yours are right up there on the list. I agree that going done stirs like that is much worse than going up. Do they have a light at night?
Maylin is surely a future athlete.
More fun adventures. It is an incredible country.
Sorry but I somehow published before editing.
We have so much fun hunting for different ones! The drink ones are everywhere, practically every second block, so I ignore them all unless I’m thirsty!
There’s a light switch both at the top and the bottom of the stairs, so when needed, we can have light. No automatic night lights for movement though, so it’s all or nothing.
Yes, I agree, she’s got some skills, that little mountain goat of ours!